Commonly assigned U.S. patent application No. 08/370,592 discloses a unique type of camera which can be loaded with a discrete strip of unexposed film of a length selected by the consumer and subsequently unloaded of a discrete length of exposed film. Such a camera typically would include a conventional counterwheel or similar feature to enable the consumer to determine visually the number of unexposed frames remaining.
A potential problem with such a camera is that as a discrete strip of film is loaded into the camera, the counterwheel or similar feature generally would tend to index along with the film; so that, during subsequent use of the camera, the frame numbers visible to the consumer would be out of phase with the actual position of the film strip within the camera. Thus, a need has arisen for an apparatus and method which can offset or initialize the counterwheel before loading of film begins; so that, upon completion of loading, the counterwheel will indicate the actual position of the film.